Today, water sports are highly appreciated for their entertaining aspect and the sensations that these sports provide. Known water sports of course include surfing. Surfing consists of gliding on waves, standing upright on a board. Different surfboards are used depending on the surfer's experience level. Surfing is indeed based on a specific principle: initially, the surfer is generally lying flat on his stomach on the board, arms on either side thereof, chest lifted. He paddles using his arms when he identifies a wave on which he wishes to glide, in order to acquire a sufficient speed for the wave to be able to carry him. When he feels the wave lift him up, he paddles more quickly, then pushes with his hands flat on the board so as to stand upright. To keep his balance, he adopts a tilted posture with bent knees. Once upright, the arms are essentially used to maintain balance and help change direction. The legs play a shock absorbing role and control the pitch of the board.
Alternatively, some surf fans enjoy bodyboarding, which is a sport similar to surfing, but done on a shorter and more flexible board. Bodyboarding is based on a principle similar to that of surfing: the “bodyboarder”, i.e., the person performing the bodyboarding, is generally in an elongated position on his board, pressing on his elbows with his chest lifted and his hands placed on the nose of the board. When gliding on a wave, the bodyboarder stays in the elongated position. However, adventurous bodyboarders may sometimes be in a seated position or even upright.
However, in practicing these two disciplines, certain conditions are required: it is not possible to practice these sports on any water surface or site, or under all weather conditions. Surfing and bodyboarding are done on surf sites: beaches receiving large or small waves with an appropriate profile. Furthermore, surfers do not necessarily appreciate wind: indeed, it makes the waves “choppy”, “soft” and quite often unusable for surfing. However, if there are no sufficient waves, there is no sport. The surfer may wait for hours for a wave to experience several seconds to several minutes of sensation. He is never certain whether it will be possible to practice the sport. Furthermore, surfing and bodyboarding require intensive training and experience to achieve mastery. These disciplines are thus not accessible to everyone, and beginners quite often have trouble feeling or assessing the sensations until they have mastered their minimum technique.
In order to eliminate the need to perform surfing or bodyboarding on surf-dedicated sites and to thus be able to take advantage of equivalent sensations without depending on weather conditions, on-demand thrill seekers engage in wakeboarding. Like bodyboarding and surfing, wakeboarding is a gliding sport requiring the use of a board. However, it is based on a different principle: the athlete, more commonly called “rider”, is pulled by a boat using a rope provided with a tow bar. A wave is created by the wake from said boat, and the rider takes advantage of that wave to jump on either side of said wake and perform different figures, such as, by way of non-limiting examples, backflips, rotations and grabs, figures inspired by “traditional” gliding sports, such as surfing or snowboarding. The rider uses a board providing good lift: fastened on this board are two shoes for the feet in the direction of the length, like for a snowboard. The choice of the board is determined by the style of the rider. Although this discipline makes it possible to do away with the location constraint, it raises other drawbacks: the position that the rider adopts on the board is sometimes not optimal because it may cause problems of knee pain and/or back pain and rapid fatigue. Furthermore, the means necessary for wakeboarding are not very accessible. Indeed, wakeboarding requires the presence of a specific boat, specially adapted to this sport: aside from the presence of a tower making it possible to fasten the tow rope, such a boat is equipped with ballasts so that it can be made heavier, as well as a specially designed hull, to ultimately obtain a wake creating higher waves. As a result, the boats are complicated to handle and require the presence of a dedicated staff, but also create very high costs due to their high degree of technicality.
Alternatively, some surfboards have been subject to improvements to offset difficulties related to weather conditions, in particular the presence or absence of waves, or those related to the return to port: they are better known as motorized surfboards. Thus, a motorized surfboard as described in document U.S. Pat. No. 6,192,817 B1 includes a body in the form of a board defining a stern and a bow, within which an internal combustion engine is housed, closer to the stern than the bow. Such a motor includes a flywheel attached to a crank and an outlet port and it is connected to a pump receiving the thrust created by the motor. Advantageously, said motorized board includes a wired controller to act on the acceleration and/or speed of the device. However, this type of device remains highly confidential, due to the many drawbacks that it raises, such as poor drivability, heaviness, excessive purchase and maintenance costs, large bulk, weak sensations, in particular in light of the use of a vehicle with a conventional motor, etc.
Furthermore, for each of the aforementioned activities, specific equipment is necessary. As an example, to surf, it is essential to have a surfboard, whereas for bodyboarding, it is essential to do so on a bodyboard adapted to that sport: it is often difficult to use a surfboard while remaining elongated. The same is true for motorized boards. Each piece of equipment is thus adapted and dedicated to each discipline. A multidisciplinary athlete must therefore invest in different equipment items.
To procure certain sensations, minimize intensive training and quite simply allow any person to move easily on the surface of a fluid, and more specifically of water, propulsion devices have been developed.
Thus, in the 60s, a propulsion device as described in documents U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,243,144 or 3,381,917 includes a body in the form of a harness or seat against or in which a passenger may be positioned, cooperating with a thrust unit in the form in particular of a pair of nozzles for ejecting a pressurized fluid and exerting thrust force. The nozzles are advantageously arranged above the center of gravity, at the height of passenger's shoulders. The thrust unit further includes a compression station for a fluid also positioned in the passenger's back supplied with gas or flammable liquids, also positioned in the passenger's back.
Given the dangerousness of this type of vehicle, more recently, other devices, inspired by teachings provided by the first invention, have been developed as described in documents U.S. Pat. No. 7,258,301 or US 2008/0014811. The compression station is now remote and generally dedicated. Furthermore, the pressurized fluid is water compressed by said station, said water being conveyed from a remote compression station using a supply pipe such as a fire hose. The configuration of the nozzles and the means making it possible to direct said nozzles are voluntarily retained. In addition to having a high cost, this device has other drawbacks as well: the configuration of the nozzles situated above the center of gravity gives the passenger the impression of being suspended from the shoulders by a virtual crane hook and thus deprives the latter of many sensations. Furthermore, the variety of directions and movements is limited.
FIG. 1 shows another embodiment of a propulsion device 10, said device having been designed by the builder ZAPATA RACING, as described in documents U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,336,805 or 8,608,104. This device includes a main body in the form of a substantially planar platform 11 on which a passenger 1 may be positioned. The propulsion device, described in connection with FIG. 1, includes a thrust unit cooperating with the platform 11. Such a thrust unit consists of a pair of primary nozzles 12a and 12b secured against the lower face of the platform 11. According to FIG. 1, the thrust unit of such a device may further include two secondary nozzles 13a and 13b to facilitate its maneuverability. The latter are free and intended to optionally and respectively be held by a passenger 1 at the forearms or hands. To deliver sufficient thrust force and allow take off, then movement, the device 10 further includes means for collecting and distributing a pressurized fluid, for example water, to the primary and secondary nozzles. Such a fluid is preferably conveyed using a flexible supply conduit 2 from a remote compression station, not shown in FIG. 1. Such a supply conduit can be made from a fire hose or any other materials having the necessary resistance to the pressure exerted by the pressurized fluid. A collector 14 can thus have a base 14c to which an end-piece 2a of a supply conduit 2 is attached, for example using a spline suitable for receiving said conduit 2. According to FIG. 1, the collector 14 may have a shape close to a “Y” to collect the pressurized fluid from the base 14c and distribute it via arms to the primary nozzles 12a and 12b, respectively. The collector 14 is connected to the primary nozzles or via an optional elbow 15, so as to direct the primary nozzles along an axis substantially perpendicular to the lower face of the platform 11. The arms are connected to said primary nozzles—via said elbow 15—by a pivot link at the arms. Such an arrangement allows a free rotation along an axis F substantially parallel to the arms of the collector 14. Thus, said collector can describe a quasi-free rotation r1 around said axis F, modulo the stop represented by the lower face 11b of the platform 11 when the latter has an excessive incline. Furthermore, such a pivot link allows the user to “take off” easily from the surface of the water and gives him a high orientation and movement capacity. A relative rotation r1 of the collector around the axis F with respect to the plane of the lower face of the platform 11, this rotation ensuing the link of the collector with the supply conduit 2, does not cause rotation of the platform 11. The end-piece 2a of the supply conduit 2 can advantageously cooperate with the collector 14 at its base 14 via a pivot link to allow a free rotation r2 around an axis C substantially parallel to the conduit 2. The device can thus pivot freely around said axis C without creating loops or excessive stresses on the supply conduit 2.
To distribute the pressurized fluid to the secondary nozzles 13a and 13b, as an example and as shown in FIG. 1, secondary conduits 18a and 18b—advantageously in the form of flexible hoses—can be provided to deliver said pressurized fluid from the collector 14 to the secondary nozzles. So as not to bother the passenger 1, said secondary conduits can be guided along the back to the shoulders through the use of maintaining means 19, such as straps, harnesses, etc. The passenger may further use means to restrain that the secondary nozzles at his forearms.
The platform 11 may have means for maintaining a passenger on the upper face of said platform 11. Thus, depending on the preferred position of a passenger on the platform, said maintaining means may consist—as indicated in FIG. 1—of a pair of slippers, foot straps or fastening boots 16 of a type similar to those for example found in wakeboarding.
A propulsion device, for example like the device 10 described in connection with FIG. 1, can be supplied by any fluid compression station inasmuch as the latter is able to deliver a fluid having a sufficient pressure to ensure the operation of the propulsion device. The latter may be remote and dedicated to that use, at the risk of increasing the overall cost of a propulsion system including a propulsion device, a compression station and a supply conduit cooperating with said device and station to convey the pressurized fluid. Such a station may alternatively consist of using an adapted motorized water vehicle (MWV) as described in document WO2013/041787A1, to cut costs.
FIG. 1 preferably describes a system in which the fluid used is pressurized water to move on the surface of a body of water. Although the propulsion device described in relation with FIG. 1 makes it possible to move easily in and/or on the surface of the water and offers its user large degrees of freedom to perform a large number of figures, it may have drawbacks for some. First of all, the configuration of the nozzles below the platform favors a substantially vertical movement and does not allow a rapid movement substantially parallel to the surface of the water: the speed of movement is thus limited, restricting the sensations of the performance-seeking passenger. Additionally, when a passenger, positioned on the platform, wishes to move along the surface of the water, this requires additional effort on his part, since the configuration of the nozzles below the platform drives a vertical movement. As a result, the balanced position to achieve the desired movement is often difficult to maintain and tiring.
The invention makes it possible to resolve the large majority of the drawbacks raised by the known solutions.
Among the many advantages provided by a device according to the invention, it can be mentioned that the latter makes it possible to: provide users with a highly entertaining device which, after a quick learning process, is easy to use and offers a wide variety of applications; provide an “all-in-one” device, making it possible, using a single adaptable device, to perform different activities without even having to leave the vehicle; be able to take off or dive irrespective of the weather conditions, completely or partially submerged, from solid land, etc.; decrease the fatigue of a passenger wishing to move substantially parallel to the surface of the fluid; increase the horizontal movement speed during the use of the propulsion device; limit or even eliminate any stresses related to practicing a water sport very close to surfing, such a sport being able to be done on any water surface irrespective of the weather.
To that end, in particular provided is a propulsion device, including a platform on which a passenger is positioned, said platform comprising an upper surface and a lower surface, and cooperating with means for collecting and distributing a pressurized fluid to a primary nozzle expelling said fluid from a fluid outlet in a given direction, said means being supplied with pressurized fluid by a fluid supply conduit.
To increase the movement speed, increase ergonomics, decrease fatigue stresses for the passenger positioned on the platform and facilitate movement substantially parallel to the surface of the water, the primary nozzle is oriented substantially from the bow to the stern of the platform. Furthermore, the fluid expulsion direction fits in a median plane of the platform. Additionally, it describes an angle comprised between −10° and +45° with a longitudinal axis of the platform contained in said median plane. Lastly, the fluid collecting and distributing means cooperate with the platform by an embedding link.
To decrease the stresses of the fluid supply conduit in rotation relative to the platform and thereby guarantee greater freedom of movements, the means for collecting and distributing a fluid may cooperate with the fluid supply conduit using a pivot link at the proximal part of said conduit.
In order to allow greater freedom of movement and more complex figures for a passenger, the platform may include at least two parts forming a single and same entity.
Alternatively, the primary nozzle may cooperate with the upper surface of the platform, the fluid expulsion direction of said nozzle and a longitudinal axis of the platform, said direction and longitudinal axis being comprised in a median plane and substantially parallel.
In order to adjust the position of the primary nozzle on the platform, the propulsion device may include means for adjusting the distance between the primary nozzle and the bow of the platform along a longitudinal axis of said platform.
Alternatively, or additionally, so as to perform sharp tight turns and easier directional movements, the propulsion device may include two co-planar secondary nozzles cooperating with the lower face of the platform in a plane secant to a longitudinal plane of the platform along a transverse axis of the platform, the normals of said planes describing an angle comprised between 0° and 90°.
Preferably, the fluid expulsion directions of the secondary nozzles can describe an angle comprised between 60° and 120° relative to one another.
In order to guarantee optimal efficacy of the device according to the invention while optimizing manufacturing costs, the primary nozzle and the two secondary nozzles can constitute a single and same entity in the form of a “composite” fluid outlet.
To allow faster movement when the passenger moves in a straight line parallel to the surface of the fluid, the propulsion device may include means for independently closing off the fluid outlets of each secondary nozzle.
Advantageously, the closing off means can be controlled electrically, hydraulically or pneumatically.
To allow an appropriate adjustment of the speed, the propulsion device may advantageously include means for adjusting the angle α described by the fluid expulsion direction and the longitudinal axis contained in the median plane containing said fluid expulsion direction.
In order to facilitate the adjustment of the angle described by the fluid expulsion direction of the primary nozzle and said longitudinal axis, the adjusting means can be controlled electrically, hydraulically or pneumatically.
To perform tight and sharp turns, the adjusting means may consist of a directional fluid outlet.
Preferably, the directional fluid outlet can be able to be oriented along a median plane, said median plane containing the fluid expulsion direction.
Alternatively, to decrease the pressure losses in the collecting and distributing means and thus boost the performance of the device for a same compression power, at least part of the means for collecting and distributing the pressurized fluid and the primary nozzle can include an oblong section.
Additionally, the fluid outlet of the primary nozzle can cooperate with a flap. Preferably, the flap is articulated.
In order to ensure greater freedom and movement possibilities, the propulsion device may advantageously include at least two primary nozzles whereof the respective fluid expulsion directions are substantially parallel to one another.
Advantageously, to allow joint use of the primary nozzles, the means for collecting and distributing a fluid can be arranged to distribute the fluid to the different primary nozzles.
To protect the nozzle(s) and all or part of the means for collecting and distributing the pressurized fluid, the propulsion device may include a fairing cooperating with the platform.
Advantageously, the propulsion device may include means for ensuring the maintenance of a passenger on the platform.
When the passenger is in the elongated position, the means for maintaining a passenger may include gripping means.
Alternatively, or additionally, the means for maintaining a passenger may include bearing means.
A second object of the invention relates to a propulsion system. Advantageously, it includes a propulsion device according to the invention cooperating with a remote compression station, said station supplying pressurized fluid to said device.
Furthermore, the propulsion system according to the invention may include a supply conduit connected on the one hand to the device and on the other hand to the remote compression station so that the latter delivers the pressurized fluid to said device via said supply conduit.
Preferably, in order to facilitate the delivery of the pressurized fluid, the remote compression station consists of a personal watercraft including a hull, propulsion means compressing, by turbining, a fluid entered through an inlet and expelling said fluid thus pressurized from a fluid outlet of said vehicle.